This News Story announcing the second round of Empty Homes Programme funding and the second year of Clusters funding can be hard to find and contains, towards the end of the piece, the DCLG 10-point version of the George Clarke's recommendations, the exact status of which as policy is hard to establish.

It is therefore being flagged as both Policy and Practice as it touches on both those points.

[The views expressed in this article are the views of the author and not those of the Empty Homes Network]

It's back to the drawing board for the powers that be in Liverpool following Eric Pickles' decision[1] to over-rule his Planning Inspector and refuse the CPO and planning permission that would have allowed the redevelopment of the "Welsh Streets" to go ahead.

This long-running project (started in 2006) by an award-winning freelance journalist Ciara Leeming offers a fascinating insight into the Housing Market Regeneration programme. There is a particular focus on the experience and responses of local people which are captured in interviews. She lets the material speak for itself.

This is a link to the web-site of the Welsh Streets Public Enquiry Progamme Officer from where key documents can be retrieved. That includes a massive amount of text that include key national policy documents and evaluations as well as more local documents. The Inspector's Report, when it comes, is going to be fascinating.

It seems that the programme management of a public enquiry on this scale is outsourced to the private sector.

The Welsh Street Housing Group has been at the heart of the resistance to the wholesale demolition of the Welsh Streets. In the process it has moved from being an exclusively campaigning group to one that has pioneered interesting approaches to neighbourhood renewal, best exemplified in its "Design Diplomacy" initiative.

The website is easy to navigate and provides access to materials the relevance of which goes beyond the epic Welsh Streets story.

Lays out options for the area of Liverpool that contains the Welsh Streets - focus of the SAVE campaign to combat demolition. Produced by DTZ Ltd. for Liverpool City Council. Gives useful insight into the finer detail of an HMR area but inevitably raises as many questions as it answers.

The latest and presumably last programmatic review of the HMR Pathfinder programme by the Audit Commisison it presents a surprisingly positive picture for a programme that has been so widely criticised.